Haggis is a dish served on a long plate. It inserts sheeps' lungs, organs, and spices into the sheep's stomach, bakes appropriately, and is provided to a "Robert Burns night" group (with or without bagpipes and kilts) with a reading of "An Address to a Haggis":
But mark the Rustic, haggis fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He'll mak it whissle;
An' legs an' arms, an' heads will sned,
Like taps o' thrissle.
Ye Pow'rs wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o' fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer,
Gie her a haggis!
A haggis? What kind of metaphor is that?
A forced one -- a metaphor, that is. But perhaps a useful forced metaphor:
Haggis is comprised of the lungs, the filterers, and the heartbeat of the sheep.
Environmental reconstruction includes the lungs, filterers, and the heartbeat of the earth.
Haggis is an exotic, presumed-distasteful fare of a colonized people.
Environmental reconstruction is an exotic, presumized-distasteful task of a corporately colonized world population.
They're actually both not so bad.
Haggis is a means of making "what's left over" become "what's for dinner."
Environmental reconstruction is a means of making "what's left" become "what we have to work with."
Actually, both have their value.
Haggis is a meal worth chewing.
Environmental reconstruction is a meal we need to chew.
Dentally, they each are pretty damned chewy.
Metaphors aside, we need to reconstruct our "stinking ware."
"Clap in his walie nieve a blade, He'll mak it whissle..." means in the end, "give the living man a tool, and he'll make music."
Give humans the tools for a rational, sustainable world, and we'll make it sing. We'll make music.
I see Haiti and I think: we need self-organizing, self-sustaining, indigenous solutions for Port-au-Prince, and for the countryside. Give them the tools, and they'll make music.
I see the next few years of ecological collapse and I think: we need self-organizing, self-sustaining, indigenous solutions for the Converging Emergencies. Give us the tools, and we'll make music that sings.
Haggis or no, metaphor or no, we need to take back our world before they take it away from us, in the name of the "economy" instead of the name of "the world we share."